MSNBC Fake Story Cartoons

Grassley holds up Deputy AG nomination until he hears from Comey on Russia

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday that he will not permit President Trump’s nomination for deputy attorney general until members of the committee are briefed by FBI Director James Comey on Moscow’s involvement in last year’s election.
Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, halted the nomination of Rod Rosenstein, a longtime U.S. attorney for Maryland. Rosenstein, the pick for the No. 2 position at the Justice Department, said earlier this month that he was not aware of any requirement that he recuse himself from a federal investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election. But he said he was open to appointing a special counsel to look into the matter if he ultimately determined it appropriate.
“Here’s what I’ve done: the Justice Department would like to get their deputy out of committee just as soon as they can,” Grassley told reporters at the Capitol, according to Politico. “I’m not going to schedule a hearing on the deputy attorney general until we get a briefing from Comey.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself last week from any investigations touching the Trump campaign following revelations of his undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador. That move means the Russia inquiry would be under Rosenstein's watch.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at Tuesday’s hearing that Rosenstein has “impressive credentials” and she does not question his “integrity.” But she said, “We need steel spines and there is a real danger the Justice Department could become politicized.”

Trump 2005 tax files released by MSNBC, White House rips ‘desperate’ story

In another major leak for the White House, MSNBC on Tuesday night released a portion of President Trump's 2005 tax documents – drawing a stern rebuke from the administration.
Host Rachel Maddow said the two-page summary of Trump’s federal return for that year was first obtained by journalist David Cay Johnston, who gave MSNBC a first look at the documents.
It is unclear who leaked them. Johnston, with the website DCReport.org, said only that he found the documents “in the mail.”
Citing the files, they said Trump made $153 million that year and paid $36.5 million in taxes, which Johnston suggested was relatively low and the result of a benefit.
The return shows the then-real estate mogul also reported a business loss of $103 million that year, although the documents don't provide detail. The forms show that Trump paid an effective tax rate of 24.5 percent, a figure well above the roughly 10 percent the average American taxpayer forks over each year, but below the 27.4 percent that taxpayers earning 1 million dollars a year average, according to data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
The White House pre-emptively pushed back minutes before the on-air report, saying that publishing the returns would be illegal.
"You know you are desperate for ratings when you are willing to violate the law to push a story about two pages of tax returns from over a decade ago,” a senior administration official said in a statement.
The official added it is "totally illegal to steal and publish tax returns."
The statement also acknowledged Trump made over $150 million that year, while saying he paid $38 million in income taxes – noting he had a responsibility to his company and family “to pay no more tax than legally required.” The statement said he also paid “tens of millions of dollars in other taxes such as sales and excise taxes and employment taxes and this illegally published return proves just that.”
Maddow countered that the return was  "not illegally published,” and argued that MSNBC was exercising its First Amendment right to publish information in the public interest.
The unauthorized release or publishing of federal tax returns is a criminal offense, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to five years in jail.
Trump's hefty business loss appears to be a continued benefit from his use of a tax loophole in the 1990s, which allowed him to deduct previous losses in future years. In 1995, Trump reported a loss of more than $900 million, largely as a result of financial turmoil at his casinos.

Tax records obtained by The New York Times last year showed the losses were so large they could have allowed Trump to avoid paying taxes for up to 18 years. But Trump's 2005 filing shows another tax prevented him from realizing the full benefit of those deductions.

The bulk of Trump's tax bill that year was due to the Alternative Minimum Tax, a tax aimed at preventing high-income earners from paying minimal taxes.

The AMT requires many taxpayers to calculate their taxes twice -- once under the rules for regular income tax and then again under AMT -- and then pay the higher amount. Critics say the tax has ensnared more middle-class people than intended, raising what they owe the federal government each year.

Were it not for the AMT, Trump would have avoided all but a few million dollars of his 2005 tax bill.

Trump's campaign website called for the end of the AMT, which is expected to bring in more than $350 billion in revenues from 2016 to 2025.
The report follows unsuccessful efforts by Democrats since the start of the 2016 presidential campaign to pressure Trump to release the documents. Last month, House Democrats even tried to force Trump to give them to Congress, only to be blocked by majority Republicans.
Maddow’s report also points to what could be another significant leak inside the federal government meant to embarrass the new president. In his first two months on the job, reports have surfaced with sensitive details about Trump’s calls with foreign leaders as well as details from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.
Trump last month blasted what he termed “illegal leaks.”
The president’s tax documents were a top target for critics throughout the 2016 race. Despite indications from Trump early on that he would follow a decades-long tradition of presidential nominees making their returns public, he later balked.
He cited an IRS audit as the reason he did not want to release the documents, while also saying at a September debate that he’d release them if Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton turned over the thousands of emails deleted from her private server.
She didn’t. In January, after Trump was sworn in, Counselor Kellyanne Conway told ABC’s “This Week” that Trump was not going to release the returns.

House health bill DOA unless major changes, GOP senators say

A day after a Congressional Budget Office released a report that said the number of uninsured would surge within the decade by 24 million under the GOP health plan, at least a dozen Republican senators warned that the bill would not become law without major policy changes.
The Wall Street Journal reported that some senators who’ve remained tight-lipped about the legislation raised concerns. The paper reported that about a dozen senators have signaled concerns about the law. Losing more than two senators—presuming Democratic senators vote down party line—would kill the bill.
“This is difficult—it’s 18 percent of the economy,” Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said. “My concern is not with the timeline; my concern is doing it right.”
Tom Price, the Health and Human Services secretary, downplayed the CBO report and said, “we disagree strenuously with the report that was put out. It’s just not believable is what we would suggest.”
Republicans are appearing to overlook President Trump’s promise to deliver “insurance for everybody,” which the CBO makes clear will not happen if the legislation becomes law. Democrats are assailing Republicans for “attacking the messenger,” seeming to forget all the times they assailed the budget office themselves.
The GOP legislation would use tax credits to help consumers buy health coverage, expand health savings accounts, phase out an expansion of Medicaid and cap that program for the future, end some requirements for health plans under Obama's law, and scrap a number of taxes.
“We’re keeping this bill intact. We’re obviously going to make some modifications,” Speaker Paul Ryan said on Fox News Tuesday, noting that senators would be able to amend the bill.

North Korea threat lingers at start of Tillerson's first Asia trip

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is set to begin his first trip to Asia in his new role and will attempt to forge cooperation with important U.S. allies in the region, while downplaying fears that the U.S. is looking to isolate itself diplomatically.
Tillerson will find shared anxiety at the North's saber-rattling but less agreement about how to deal with it, and unresolved questions about how the United States and China, the world's two largest economies, can manage growing differences.
Japan and South Korea, which host American troops and are already within range of North Korean missiles, support U.S. efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Pyongyang.
The three navies were also conducting drills Wednesday in seas east of the divided Korean Peninsula and north of Japan to promote interoperability, the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said.But China remains conflicted about how to treat its traditional ally for fear of triggering its collapse.
Adding to the combustible mix of military tension and the region's historic rivalries is another factor — uncertainty about U.S. foreign policy under the Trump administration.
Tillerson, who arrives in Tokyo late Wednesday at the start of his four-day, three-nation tour, could provide some reassurance to nervy allies. He will meet Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
The former Exxon Mobil CEO has adopted a low profile during his six weeks as secretary of state. The State Department Correspondents' Association expressed disappointment Wednesday that Tillerson was traveling to Asia without a full contingent of the diplomatic press corps or even a pool reporter on his plane — although it is taking a reporter from the conservative-leaning website, the Independent Journal Review.
President Trump's rise to power has raised anxiety in Asian capitals. During last year's election campaign, Trump asked whether allies like Japan and South Korea contribute enough for their own defense or should get their own nuclear weapons. He also questioned the fundamentals of four decades of U.S. diplomacy with China.
Trump has allayed some of those concerns since taking office. Trump hosted Abe at his Florida resort last month, and when Tillerson goes to Beijing Saturday, he is expected to arrange a much-anticipated visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the U.S.
"The U.S. allies, Japan and South Korea, want to know that the United States is going to continue to defend them but also is going to show a certain amount of finesse and diplomatic skills in dealing with China and with North Korea," said Robert Dujarric, the director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University's campus in Tokyo.
North Korea will be a top priority on all Tillerson's stops. The State Department says Tillerson wants to discuss "fresh" approaches. Administration officials say all options are on the table, including military ones, but signs are that the U.S. for starters wants to see rigorous implementation of existing sanctions against Pyongyang.
There appears to be little desire for now to negotiate with North Korea, unless it commits to denuclearization, which it shows no sign of doing.
The North conducted two nuclear tests and 24 ballistic missile tests last year, deepening concern in Washington that it could soon develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland — something Trump has vowed won't happen.
The U.S. is currently involved in annual military drills in South Korea that North Korea regards as rehearsal for invasion. In a show of defiance, the North fired four ballistic missiles into ocean off Japan last week. The next day, the U.S. began bringing in equipment for the long-planned deployment in South Korea of a missile defense system, known by its acronym, THAAD.
That has raised tensions with China, which says the THAAD's radar could peer into Chinese territory, weakening its own nuclear deterrent. The U.S. says the system is intended to be used only against North Korea.
A Trump administration official told Reuters that Tillerson's position on THAAD would be uncompromising.
"THAAD is non-negotiable," the official told Reuters. "This is one of those things where Beijing is just going to have to adapt to or live in a perpetual cycle of outrage.
"But this is a chance to lay down a marker on what we would need from China and to hear from them what they would want to see in return. Everyone is eyes-open that they are not going to give us anything on North Korea without something in return."